10 February 2011

A house divided

If this report in the Guardian is true, then either the Coalition cannot last no matter how many MPs are on the government's payroll vote, or the Tories will have consented to being subsumed by the LibDems.

Nick Clegg will try to draw lines in the sand over the government's public services reform programme by insisting that he will not allow private providers to run schools for profit, or skew the health market in favour of the private sector. In a speech to the Guardian public services summit in St Albans, the deputy prime minister will promise to take a hard line against blanket privatisation.

We've had Cable boasting about how he can bring down the Coalition, now we have his nominal boss doing the same in response to a mutiny by his party's local councillors. The only certain outcome of a LibDem defection would be their electoral annihilation, so this is the equivalent of someone standing on a high ledge and threatening to jump unless his demands are met.

Why should anyone other than the current LibDem leadership care whether they jump or not? I hope they do, as they will drag the Cameron-Osborne duo down with them and we may get back to something akin to real politics.

You can always take a 'hard line' against a blanket anything - and then claim that you got the exceptions and tweaks that you wanted. Clegg is just woofing in order to keep Labour from draining off his left-libs. Which no doubt they will do some of anyway. Sad to think anyone 'liberal'could repose trust in Milliebunk and Balls.

The electorate had not drained the cup of statism to the dregs before the last general election. Until it does, this mincing around in the centre-left space will continue. The world is not going to stop changing simply because the Brits want more time to play with themselves before getting down to earning what they want to spend.